Seco Tools (UK) Ltd (www.secotools.com) reports that the ‘Inspiration through Innovation’ Open House at its Technology Centre last month was a huge success, with over 715 visitors over the two days.

Now in its fourth year, this event is regarded as one of the UK’s leading advanced-manufacturing best-practice events, attracting technical partners and UK and Irish component manufacturers alike.

The main highlights this year included: 11 machining demonstrations involving advanced machine tools and tooling technologies, CAD/CAM software systems and solutions relating to work-holding, metal-working fluids and metrology; nine best-practice seminars; and over 50 technical partners showcasing their latest products, services and technology solutions.

Mike Fleming — Seco’s strategic marketing, products and services manager — said: “We were delighted by visitor turn-out, and by the commitment and response shown by all our technical partners.

“Last year’s event was supported by 40 partners; this year, the number was over 50 — proving that ‘Inspiration through Innovation’ is both valued and continues to grow in popularity.”

Stewart Coull, managing director of Jemtech Ltd (the exclusive distributor of Blaser Swisslube metal-working fluids in the UK and Ireland, and the manufacturer of Oracle fluid management systems), said: “We have attended Seco’s Inspiration through Innovation Open Houses every year, and the 2017 event has been the best yet. We have been impressed with the volume and type of enquiries from visitors.”

As well as ‘established’ partners exhibiting at the event, a number of new ones attended for the very first time, including US-based MachineMetrics.

The company’s co-founder and partner, Eric Fogg, said: “This was our first time at ‘Inspiration through Innovation’, and I was impressed. The event provided the ideal opportunity to meet with UK and Irish manufacturers, and for us to demonstrate our machine-monitoring software solutions to a knowledgeable audience.”

Richard Jelfs, Seco’s managing director, said: “Our objective with ‘Inspiration through Innovation’ has always been to create an inspiring and practical event that is truly customer-focused and demonstrates to visitors and partners alike that significant improvements in productivity, quality and performance can be best achieved through
collaboration and by sharing best practice.

“This year, we wanted the event to be bigger and better than previous ones; I think we succeeded.”